In this issue, we look at form – does the shape of our buildings follow function or fiction? What are the ideas that drive it, stories that justify it, styles born from it and politics that govern it?

Charles Jencks eulogises Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg as a masterwork and late, great entry into the Postmodern movement, embracing pop and esoteric tastes. In Poland, KWK Promes’s Dialogue Centre eschews icon-building by tucking a museum underneath a public square.

OMA marks the spot using two axial routes to create an x-shaped library in Caen, while Glenn Murcutt’s magnum opus sees form as an adaptive language. Neri & Hu’s non-chapel in Suzhou embraces the cube. In the Canadian mountains, Patkau’s art gallery tiptoes around trees, while Chris & Gantenbein’s Kunstmuseum extension in Basel opts for an impenetrable approach.

Maria Fedorchenko revives the diagram as a design tool with superpowers, while Douglas Murphy considers the history of buildings within buildings, and asks whether space needs a roof to be architecture.

Finally, in Typology we look at the airport, still embodying the dream of technologised freedom to travelers no matter how bludgeoned by commerce or terrorised by the state, while Outrage turns on the tasteful restraint of UK planners that is stifling architectural expression.

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From birthday celebrations to the sad passing of several architects, this month we have mined our archive to mark July moments – plus the full set of AR House awards shortlisted projects have been published in more depth online, reviewed by a cohort of New Architecture Writers

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A curated selection of the best architectural ideas in the world to inspire your mind and feed your soul. Each special edition is created using sheet-fed litho printing with hand-inserted tip-ins and gatefolds with vegetable-based inks on a mix of FSC-certified paper and card. Don't miss the next issue –